Environmental Sustainability and Geography Majors, Minors

What You'll Learn

Are you ready to turn your passion for making the world a better place into an exciting career? This program gives you the knowledge, skills, and hands-on training to understand the social and environmental challenges of different communities and to find sustainable solutions. Are you interested in exploring a variety of topics and places and different ways of learning? This program blends science, social science, and humanities to build a holistic understanding of how people, places, economies, institutions, and the natural world are all related.

This major has two distinct tracks, both of which give you a broad, interdisciplinary background while preparing you for a variety of rewarding careers.

Students in the sustainability concentration, focus on solving complex societal challenges, paving the way for careers in environmental law, environmental management, or corporate and government sustainability analysis.

Students in the geography concentration, dive into mapping and spatial planning, leading directly to roles as a GIS analyst, city planner, or land-use manager—as well as graduate study in urban planning and public administration. No matter which concentration you select, this major gives you the tools to create flourishing communities and a sustainable future.

What Makes This Program Great

Professional-grade facilities: You'll have access to a vast collection of maps, a dedicated geospatial analysis lab with the latest software, drones, survey-quality GPS receivers, surveying equipment, stream and soil sampling equipment, an on-campus research sand dune, a weather station, and more.
Real-world research opportunities: As an environmental sustainability and geography major, you'll have the chance to work in Calvin’s Ecosystem Preserve, help restore the Plaster Creek watershed, and do research with your professors during the academic year and summer. Environmental sustainability and geography students have done research on a wide variety of topics including Lake Michigan coastal dunes, energy use and climate change, tree cover in Grand Rapids, urban parks, the Plaster Creek watershed, cleanup and redevelopment of contaminated land, and the geographies of religion.
Practical job experience: The GEO department hires more students than any other department. Students are hired yearly for a wide variety of positions, from managing a map library to maintaining the university weather station.
Study off-campus: The GEO department regularly offers off-campus courses to places as diverse as Yosemite National Park, New Mexico, Death Valley, Hawaii, British Columbia, and Central and Eastern Europe.

Great paying jobs that are in high demand!

The US Department of Labor Labor projects “much faster than average” growth, in excess of 20% or more, in jobs for geographers, geoscientists, cartographers, urban and regional planners, and other geographic professionals, with projected needs of upwards of 15,000 additional employees in each of these career fields between 2008-2018.
Geospatial technology is one of the most important emerging and evolving fields in the technology industry.
Urban planning is consistently one of the “hot jobs” in the USA.

Sustainability and Geography tackle...

Environmental Change: habitat fragmentation, land-use change, climate change, natural hazards, and strain on water resources.
Geographic Technologies: digital mapping (GIS), satellite remote sensing, and online mapping are tools geography students develop and use to better understand, manage, and improve our world.
Globalization: Globalization is increasing connections between distant places and changing economies, cultures, and landscapes around the world. Geography students are at the forefront of understanding these changes.
And more! See below to examine the multiple career paths you might follow with a major in environmental sustainability and geography!

Careers in Environmental Sustainability and Geography

Provide legal council to clients on a broad range of environmental issues.

Advocating contested matters before regulatory agencies
Environmental civil actions
Energy related issues
Permits, agreements, reports and other documents to ensure environmental compliance
Cities, colleges, corporations, development groups, farms, gas stations, and private land owners

Facilitating decision making to carry out land development with consideration given to the natural environment, social, political, economic and governance factors to achieve sustainable outcomes.

Social and economic development
Urban, and regional development
Natural resource management
Infrastructure systems

Using GIS to acquire, manage, display, and analyze spatial data in digital form

Geospatial Information Scientist and Technologist
Geospatial Analyst
GIS Developer
Logistic Analyst
Transportation Planner
Environmental Consultant

Designing paper or digital maps

Cartographer and Photogrammetrist
Surveying and m=Mapping Technician
Civil Drafter
Graphics Editor
Digital Cartographer

Knowing and applying geographic information about natural hazards (e.g., hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, fire)

Emergency management
Forest fire inspector
Environmental consultant
Ecological risk assessor
Geotechnical engineer
Hazards analyst

Understanding the underlying theories and methods related to acquiring an object without contacting it physically (e.g., aerial photography, radar and satellite imaging)